Mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular telephones and smartphones, for example, provide a man machine interface (MMI) through which a user interfaces with/or controls the operation of the mobile device. A mobile device's MMI typically consists of a hardware portion and a software portion. The hardware portion consists of buttons, thumb-wheels, displays, microphones, speakers and the like, whereas the software portion typically consists of visual or audio elements which a user may interact with through the use of one or more hardware portion. A common example of a software portion of a man machine interface includes an icon. The icon is displayed on a display and is actuated by a user through the use of a button. The software portion of the MMI may also include non-interactive elements, such as logos, ring tones, menu hierarchies or screen layouts known generally as a theme.
Theme refers to attributes of the visual components or elements of the user interface that affect the look, but not the underlying meaning or semantic content, of the visual components such as colors, fonts, icon look and size, background images, and logos, among other things. Theme-able attributes are those attributes of visual elements of the user interface that can be changed or customized based on information provided to a mobile device.
Mobile device manufacturers frequently enter into arrangements with telecommunications providers (carriers) whereby the carrier sells a manufacturer's mobile devices to consumers. Carriers will typically order a volume of a given mobile device from the manufacturer for sale. A carrier may desire to have a distinct MMI to represent its corporate identity or image and to serve to differentiate mobile devices and services sold by them from those sold by other carriers. The carrier configurable MMI is typically the software portion and is commonly known as a theme. A theme includes both interactive (or functional) elements and visual (or aesthetic) elements.
The volume of mobile devices ordered by a carrier could be significant (to take advantage of volume discounts for example). As such, the carrier may not sell all of the ordered mobile devices until a lengthy period of time has past. During this time, the carrier may have changed marketing material, may have been acquired by another carrier or may have merged with another carrier. Any mobile devices which remain unsold may not comply with novel requirements resulting from the marketing change, acquisition or merger.
Solutions exist wherein a mobile device's theme may be altered.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,509,913 to Bruce K. Martin Jr et al. is entitled “Configurable Man-Machine Interface” (the '913 Patent) and discloses methods which allow a network operator to configure a wireless device's man-machine interface remotely, over the air. The wireless device's man-machine interface disclosed in the '913 patent exists in relation to a browser application executing at the wireless device. The browser application requests from a network operator a configuration file which is then delivered to the wireless device and provided to the browser application. The browser application uses the configuration file to determine how to divide the wireless device's display into portions and further associate each portion of the screen with a universal resource indicator. The browser application will typically request (and possibly re-request) each of the resources indicated by the universal resource indicator and display the resource in the assigned portion of the screen.
U.S Patent Application Number US2005/0050474 to Bells et al. is entitled “Method and Data Structure for User Interface Customization” and is assigned to a common applicant, Research in Motion Ltd (the '474 application). In the '474 application is disclosed a data structure useable to theme a mobile device. The data structure is generally referred to as a UI theme file. The '474 application also discloses a UI theme manager operable at a mobile device to manage themes at the mobile device. Also disclosed in the '474 is a UI data provider system which is operable to provide UI theme files to the UI theme manager on a mobile device.
There is a need for improved system and methods whereby a mobile device's theme can be conveniently altered.
Similar numerals may have been used throughout the figures to represent similar components.